Lost at Sea: Palestinians once again suffer under an Israeli storm with no end in sight
The horrors and bloodshed occurring yet again in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank between the Israelis and the Palestinians have not lost any of their shock value. Time after time we have witnessed this multi-generational struggle tip over into conflict with deaths on both sides, but invariably and perhaps predictably, the brunt always being borne by Palestinian civilians.
Ilan Pappe, the Israeli historian and long time critic of his countries policies towards the Palestinians, says that since the turn of the century successive governments have made no attempt to hide ‘their racist ideology’ vis a vis their treatment and attitude towards their Arab neighbours.
But he says that this unabashed tactic has resulted in a dramatic shift in Western public perception towards the ongoing conflict and a greater appreciation of the deplorable situation of the Palestinian people. But he stresses that ‘so far this shift has yet to reach the upper echelons of society (i.e. governmental diplomats and elites) and therefore on the ground Israel continues — unabated and uninterrupted — its policies of dispossession and does not seem to be paying a price for its policies.’ (1)
Pappe does not shy away from comparisons with the apartheid regime of ‘supremacist South Africa’, and neither does another highly vocal critic of his nations policies towards the Palestinians.
Gideon Levy, writing in the MEEye says, ‘if Israel talks about annexing occupied territories and turning Israel into an apartheid state not only de facto, but de jure, there is a duty to stand up and speak out against that, and to decry Israel’s intended actions.’
But as he points out, critics of Israel policies are invariably silent, a result he says of the successful propaganda campaigns run by Israel that seek, and invariably succeed, in labelling any critique and critic of their policy as antisemitic.
Suggesting that this deafening silence, particularly in Europe, but perhaps also in large part, the US as well, may be because of guilt for past injustices. ‘Antisemitism must be fought’, of course, he says, but ‘if Israel commits war crimes, they must be opposed and condemned. This is more than a right; it is an obligation. How in heaven’s name is this about antisemitism?’
And he continues, ‘If Israel bombs helpless civilians in Gaza, how is there any possibility of not standing against that? Yet, doing so has become nearly impossible in Europe and the US’ because of the accusations that will almost inevitably follow on from any overt criticism.
And yet, despite the growing death toll, heavily and tragically weighted as always on the Palestinian side (approaching 200 Palestinian civilian deaths at the time of writing), the criticism from the EU, from the UK and most especially, from Biden’s administration in the US, has still not materialised, even in the wake of the deliberate bombing of a multi-storey building housing some parts of the international media.
Biden ran on a foreign policy platform of standing up for human rights; what none of us knew was that the platform came with caveats with regard to Netanyahu and Israel. Biden’s apparent ‘bothsidesism’ has angered Palestinian rights activists everywhere. His flat-out refusal to condemn the disproportionate reaction of the Israelis and to seek to apportion blame for this latest flare-up of violence on both sides is tantamount to a vindication of Israel’s ongoing tactic of illegal evictions, displacement, and subordination.
What Human Rights Watch have clearly labelled as a blatant Israeli strategy of apartheid (2) in their report last month, yet activists and those seeking to end the abhorrent subjugation of the Palestinians, are often times deemed criminal, the common outrage being one of, you’ve guessed it, antisemitism.
Levy expresses his horror that this struggle against the occupation and its legal infrastructure is ‘undergoing sustained delegitimisation and criminalisation’ when the struggle against Israeli apartheid is perhaps ‘clearly the (single) most moral struggle’ going on today.
Palestinian outrage began this time round when, at the beginning of Ramadan, Israeli police put barriers up around the Damascus Gate Square, effectively stopping the Palestinians visiting one of their most important religious sites during the holy month, and then subsequently stopped worshippers from coming to Jerusalem to visit the al Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third most holy site, and one that holds particular importance during Ramadan.
Tensions were further inflamed when IDF soldiers entered the Mosque itself, walking over prayer mats, a poorly gauged tactic that showed Israeli ignorance of the value of such things to Muslims everywhere, not just in Palestine (3).
Of course, the resultant violence has gone both ways. Hamas, who have indiscriminately launched more than a 1000 rockets from Gaza at Israeli cities must shoulder a large part of the blame.
But Hamas do not represent the Palestinian people. Their voice has been consistently manipulated over the years by their Iranian paymasters and they are not a legitimate mouthpiece for the Palestinians they claim to represent.
But the feckless PA, headed by the inept Mahmoud Abbas, are also conspicuously and continuously lacking the strength of character and legitimacy that the Palestinian people so desperately need, and are so desperately lacking.
With the elections cancelled, perhaps at the behest of Hamas, who feared they would lose even more credibility and power if they went ahead, this leaves the Palestinian people once more rudderless, lost at sea and at the whim of an Israeli government that needs to win and Hamas who cannot countenance defeat.
- Noam Chomsky & Ilan Pappe; On Palestine, 2015.
2. Human Rights Watch; A Threshold Crossed: Israeli authorities and the crimes of apartheid and persecution, April 2021. Visit http://hrw.org
3. Jerusalem united in violence; Haaretz Weekly podcast, May 9th.
